World's Fair 2026
The Pipeline Is Dead - Iris ten Teije, Sky Valley Ambient Computing
Overview
The traditional software pipeline, built around the assumption that software creation is expensive and rare, is becoming obsolete. This model, which emphasizes shipping a single, frozen artifact to all users, is being replaced by a paradigm where software can be continuously adapted and personalized. The decreasing cost and increasing ease of software production, coupled with the demand for tailored user experiences, are driving this shift towards adaptive software.
Who should watch
- AI engineers and builders exploring new software architectures.
- Product Managers and engineers focused on user experience and customization.
- Developers interested in the future of software distribution and development.
- Those facing challenges with managing complex, monolithic codebases.
Key takeaways
- The traditional software pipeline was designed to mitigate the high cost and risk of software changes by shipping a single, frozen artifact.
- The cost of producing software changes is rapidly decreasing, making per-user adaptation economically viable.
- Users have a long-standing demand for personalized software, evident in professional services, dotfiles, and tools like Excel.
- Adaptive software moves from a "one version for everyone" model to a "best version for anyone" approach, with a canonical stem and individually adapted divergences.
- Concerns about unmanaged divergence and brittleness are addressed by architecting divergences as bounded, isolated, and reversible.
- Key challenges in adaptive software include establishing a source of truth, ensuring correctness and desirability through testing and metrics, managing autonomy versus control, and coordinating updates across many user-specific versions.
- The future of software development lies in merging intent and outcomes rather than specific code commits, enabling convergence on goals through personalized paths.
- The distinction between development and distribution is dissolving as software creation becomes as cheap as running it.
Notable quotes
*The entire stack exists to solve exactly one problem: Get a frozen artifact, that code, from machine where it was built to the machine where it runs, safely, reproducibly, once.*
*The cost of producing a correct and scope change is collapsing towards zero.*
*The next 20 years are about shipping the right version to anyone with the isolation and provenance that makes it safe instead of terrifying.*
Unofficial community note. Prefer the recording for nuance.